THE TREND IN VISIONING CONFERENCES


Hello everyone.

“And the beat goes on.........................................”


IN THE FACE OF THE TIGER:

California’s funding for the arts continues to be in crisis mode. There is yet again a huge deficit facing the state, and the prospect of new funds on the state or municipal levels is all but a non-starter. Foundations portfolios have lost value and budget cuts to their funding allocations continues (witness the letter from Hewlett to grantees advising them that their Performing Arts Program - cut 40% over the past two years – will remain flat at that level, and that the foundation will end its support for national arts service organizations, scale back on any new research or initiatives into the arts education arena, forego any other kinds of new initiatives, and will only accept letters of inquiry by invitation. Corporate giving continues its downward track, audiences are shrinking and individual donor giving is good for some, not for most.

The California Arts sector’s financial underpinning may be worse than many areas around the country, but it is hardly alone. In the face of this daunting funding calamity, advocacy has become particularly challenging. The sector is asked to rally to this emergency or that crisis - not to make any headway, but to keep draconian elimination of programs and services from happening. In terms of public funding the supply continues to shrink, the demand continues to increase, the competition gets more fierce and we remain less organized than other sectors and still without real political clout. And so arts advocacy could hardly get more difficult in that environment.

Last week the California Arts Advocates invited 100 leaders / thinkers from around the state to gather in Sacramento to engage in a Visioning Retreat – a two day affair to try to jumpstart a state wide dialogue and conversation on how the arts sector might envision making itself indispensable to the daily life of the average citizen.

I am seeing more of these “visioning” gatherings around the country as the times dictate that traditional advocacy and lobbying is not likely to succeed. Faced with the prospect of spinning our wheels, more of us are turning to tackling the even harder challenge of how to change our fortunes over the long term based on our (at least perceived) value to the average person in our local communities. At least at this gathering, there was a clear understanding that such an undertaking would take a long, long time to affect. But the prevailing feeling was that such a Herculean effort had to start somewhere. The unspoken feeling was, I think, that if we aren’t likely to succeed in the short term goals of convincing government decision makers to increase our funding, then we still need to do something – anything – so as to keep our coalitions alive and nurture our own. And so maybe addressing the biggest issues is the right thing to do at this point in time.

I think this is exactly right for the most part.

The Sacramento gathering started out with consideration of the changing composition of California demographics, then moved to small discussions of what a dynamic, relevant, meaningful sector that resonated really well with the average local citizen might look like. I think the organizers of this event – and similar ones that seem to be taking place across the country – are to be commended. They are trying to help us to stay joined together, to focus on something tangible (even if grandiose) and to feel empowered.

The problem with these efforts is the practical challenge of moving forward. How do you sustain momentum? How do you take a somewhat esoteric exercise and package the process so that you can replicate it and actually engage a large number of people in an ongoing conversation – first within your sector, but then (and more problematical) to the larger community? Given the challenges and demands everyone in the sector faces – how do you launch a real dialogue that will take root and last in the community? I think this particular gathering might have spent more time on the practicalities of that specific task. I am afraid that the goal of making the dialogue real got somewhat lost in the mechanics of trying to envision the scope of the problem and the form the solution might take. Unless there is some grappling with the specifics and logistics of fomenting a real dialogue it is very difficult to sustain a conversation despite the best of intentions.

But in the overall scheme, that is a minor criticism. There is much to be said about the effort itself – the involvement of those that originate it, of those they invite to join them, and of the process of moving forward. Advocacy needs involvement to stay alive; it needs some focus, the periodic sense of victory and empowerment to avoid paralysis borne of ennui.

I was one of the original founders of the California Arts Advocates back in the mid 1990s – itself a reincarnation of any earlier advocacy effort. I know how difficult arts advocacy can be - a grossly underfunded, exclusively volunteer effort that simply has too many challenges and too few victories. I have the greatest respect and admiration for those who are selflessly and tirelessly dedicating their time and energy into the current advocacy effort in California – given the times a largely impossible and thankless enterprise. The ones I know personally who are now guiding the Arts Advocates - Brad Erickson, Deborah Cullinan, Daniele Brazell, Dalouge Smith, Terence McFarland, and Kerry Adams Harper together with their board colleagues and all the participants across the state are doing a quite incredible job to keep the hope and reality of arts advocacy alive. And the same is true of other dedicated people in our ranks across the country.

I hope that those local collective efforts to launch conversations and dialogues across the sector about how we might envision a way to finally, and more fully, be considered by the public as an indispensable part of daily living in our local communities take root and grow. I hope we spend more time talking about the mechanics of how we might launch and keep those “big picture” conversations going, and how those conversations tie into arts advocacy and its future – because I think that will be key in accomplishing the goal. And the process will be a long, long one for changing public attitudes is no easy task. I hope too that in the not too distant future, arts advocacy can again return to the more mundane, practical job of trying to influence decision makers in our favor and that we keep in mind the importance of political clout to the task. Vision by itself will never be enough for successful advocacy.


COMING UP ON WEDNESDAY OF THIS WEEK – Americans for the Arts new ARTS INDEX.

Have a good week.

Don’t Quit.

Barry

Hello everyone.


“And the beat goes on..............”


Welcome to BARRY’S BLOG on the new platform.


Here are just a few of the Blog Posts I am working on for the coming year - Don’t miss out on these 2010 BARRY’S BLOG entries:

1. A late January major interview with Rocco Landesman, Chair of the NEA.

2. An in-depth focus on the new Americans for the Arts potential game changing research: The Arts Index.

3. The Annual Top 25 Most Powerful & Influential Leaders in the Nonprofit Arts Sector.

4. The Annual Year End Predictions of trends in the field.

5. A multi-week online Forum with national leaders on one of two subjects:

• Arts education, or

• Technology in both the creation and presentation of art.

6. At least three major in-depth interviews.

7. Several Roundtable Discussions

• The BLOGGER’S ROUNDTABLE - featuring a half dozen or more of the sector’s principal bloggers discussing why they blog, what they hope to accomplish, the ups & downs of blogging and the role blogs play in arts & cultural administration and policy formulation.

• ARTS ACADEMIC ROUNDTABLE – featuring directors of major arts administration degree programs on the future of professional development and training for new (and existing) leadership.

• The MILLENNIALS ROUNDTABLE – a candid discussion with young Millennial arts leaders from around the country about their workplace experiences, role in policy making and the ups and downs of trying to carve out a career in a down economy and a boomer generation world.


Here are just some of the topics I hope to focus on in future blogs in 2010:

1. Multicultural Arts Provision in America at the end of the first decade of the century - Short shift or fair shake? - an exploration of the economic and other challenges facing the nonprofit multicultural arts communities and how they are faring in addressing those challenges. Are they getting support or are they on their own.

2. Some consideration on the CompARTmentalization of the nonprofit arts sector. How and why do we let others define us?

3. The arts and the business relationship re-examined. When will we figure out that it's a waste of time to ask for business support and cooperation until we figure out what they want and how to deliver it? How do we even get past the business world's gatekeepers?

4. Arts Administrators as Sisyphus: Does anybody (beside us) really care about arts & culture in America anymore. Why or why not? Confessions of burnt out arts administrators. Ten reasons why NOT to quit.

5. Spinning Wheels Got to Go Round. Making the case for NOT making the case. We don't need to justify ourselves, we need political and media power.

6. "Destigmatizing the arts as a charity case” – How do we change the perception of support for the arts as an investment, not a hand-out?

7. Cha, Cha, Cha Changes: The new Demographics profiles revisited. What are the results, if any, of awareness of the new data? What are the likely impacts and implications for us of the 2010 Census and what do we need to know and do now.

8. Chicken Feed to Living Wages. How do we move towards paying both artists and arts administrators living wages? Not competitive wages, but just minimal living wages?

9. What about Me? Notes from the small, rural, suburban, newer, diverse and underfunded, undervalued and underappreciated arts organizations in America. All but forgotten?

10. Five things I wish someone had told me about arts administration – advice from seasoned veterans from around the country.

11. Job or Profession? Consideration of why arts administration is (in certain quarters) not considered a profession. Where is the authoritative, credentialed, academically rigorous National Nonprofit Arts Journal? Where are the White Papers on policy issues? Where is the certification for professional administrators mechanism? Where is the ongoing continuing education of the field? Where is the relationship between the university academic degree in arts administration program and the working administrator field? Where are the unions or trade associations?

12. Organizational Crisis Intervention -- when arts organizations face meltdowns (financial, audience collapse, board of director infighting, artistic director passing) what kind of crisis intervention resources are available, and who is providing those services?



And here are five of the more theoretical questions facing us as a sector that I hope to address in future blogs this year:

a. How the high tech companies like Google, YouTube, Facebook and ones not yet in existence will co-opt and soon takeover -- if not the role of the nonprofit performing arts in America, then at least the public face and distribution of the art forms (e.g. the Goggle Youth Orchestra). What are the implications of such a scenario for arts in America.

b. Will the future of corporate philanthropy in the arts move towards exclusive sponsorship of specific cultural institutions (e.g. - Pepsi's SF Opera) and what are the implications of such a development?

c. Is word of mouth replacing all other advertising for audience development - at least among Millennials?

d. Data mining revisited -- why are the arts so slow to get on the bandwagon? Aren’t we missing the boat given the valuable information just waiting for us to develop and exploit?

e. The consequences of a failure to address the needs of the arts organization infrastructure. Real life problems and costs of the sin of complacency and omission.


That’s just a small sampling of what I hope to provide in blog posts on BARRY’S BLOG this year. I can promise you some surprises in form and content and in the expansion of this platform and its’ role in arts & culture public policy formulation.
Thank you very much.

Have a great week.

Don’t Quit


Barry

January 03, 2010

 

FIVE EASY-TO-KEEP NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS THAT WILL REALLY HELP YOU IN 2010

Happy New Year everyone.

“And the beat goes on................”

In Memoriam: I was saddened to learn that Peggy Amsterdam, President of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, passed away last week. Not only was she one of our smartest, most effective leaders --someone who not only saw the big picture but could both envision and implement the actions needed to address the issues -- she was simply a very kind and decent human being. She was a friend, and I will miss her terribly. Godspeed Peggy and thank you, thank you for all that you did for the arts in America. This is a loss for the whole sector. We need more Peggy Amsterdams in our ranks.

My favorite politician of all time, Winston Churchill (from whom I took the “Don’t Quit” tag line I end my blogs with), was counseled by a friend - after he (Churchill) had been defeated in a bid for public office early in his career - that it “was probably a blessing in disguise”. Churchill responded: “Damn fine disguise.” That is precisely how I feel about 2009. There may have been a silver lining to last year somewhere, but I’m glad the year is gone. Now it’s time to move on.

FIVE EASY-TO-KEEP NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS THAT WILL REALLY HELP YOU IN 2010:

1. Make a list of the five biggest items on your agenda for the coming year, and then delegate most of the decision-making authority on one or two of them to staffers, including your junior level employees. If you are a Mom & Pop organization with little to no staff, assign the projects to an outside source or to volunteers. If you have a Millennial Generation person in your employ – turn a big ticket project over to them. An obvious choice is in communications and marketing. You can insist that they check in with you for periodic review, but don’t micromanage them. Explain your hope for the desired outcomes, but then let them run with it. I know it’s difficult to relinquish control, but I can promise you three results: 1) you will free up extremely valuable time you will need for the most important big ticket projects on your plate (admit it, you are trying to do too much); 2) you will more than likely be surprised and pleased with the work they perform and the results they achieve, and 3) you will reap the benefit of increased staff morale and enhance the reputation of your organization as a place young people want to work.

2. Taking a page from Michael Kaiser’s advice book – make a list of ten people in your community who might be in a position to really help your organization this year. Such a list might include local business people, funders (be they corporate, government or foundation), people in the media, a local marketing major domo, an elected official or stakeholder or anyone else whose skill set, pocketbook, community standing & reputation, network or whatever could benefit your organization. Then assign each of those names to a separate member of your Board and charge that Board member with the job of cultivating a real relationship with that person over the next six months. Have them report on their progress as a regular part of upcoming Board meetings. The goal is not to necessarily ask that local target for anything, but rather just to cultivate a relationship. You can ask for what you need after the relationship is flourishing. If you do that now, you can reap the benefits later in the year.

3. For the first two weeks of the year, practice the art of listening. When in conversation, resist the temptation to interrupt the person talking and to too early chime in with your thoughts and reactions. In fact, wait until the other person is finished talking, then slowly and silently count to five before you say anything. Often, during that pause the other person will fill the void and add more. Let them. Parse your response to as few words as you possibly can. You really don’t always have to say anything, even when you have a lot to say. Do this for just two weeks, and I guarantee you your take on things will change significantly. We live in a culture where everyone wants to talk, but almost no one listens anymore. We hear words being said, but we don’t hear the meaning behind them. Try as hard as you can to understand what the other person is saying to you. And reserve your comments, judgments, opinions and reactions until later. Try it and see what changes it makes. You will be surprised.

4. Make it a point – and get in the daily habit – of complementing and thanking the people in your organization. Call someone every week (staffer, donor, Board member, volunteer, stakeholder) and personally thank them for their efforts and contributions to your organization. Call it Karma or good public relations or whatever you want, but I assure you that you will be most pleasantly surprised at the net result of reaching out to people to say thank you. It’s something we too often forget. This is a good resolution whether you are Chair of the Board, Executive Director, artistic director, intern or janitor.

5. Take some time off every single week. It doesn’t have to be much, but make it a regular practice to stand back from what occupies seemingly every minute of every day all week long. All of us (and falsely I think) think we have to be workaholics to get to the finish line, and in the process we end up far too close to the daily grind. What happens is we can’t see the proverbial forest for the trees. You will make far better snap (and long term) decisions if you allow yourself the regular glimpse of the bigger picture, and you will get far less bogged down in the (really meaningless and irrelevant) minutiae and details if you stand back.

Do these five things for two months, and I assure you your work life will be better on any number of fronts.

And if none of that works for you, here’s a tip I learned from my dog: If you open your eyes really wide and then stare silently at somebody long enough, they will give you anything you want.

Don’t forget when you get the notice this month to re-subscribe to the blog as we move to a new platform, please take the few moments to do that right away. I appreciate it.

Have a great week and a great year.
Don’t Quit.
Barry